FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[david916]

A toxic beauty!

[david916]

Villiaumite within urtite from the Koashva ‬‬‬Apatite ‭Deposit on the Khibiny ‭Massif

[alfredo]

Nice villiaumites, David. The Russian ones seem to be a deeper color than the lighter red or raspberry-colored ones from Namibia, of which I recently got some from an American friend who collected them himself at the Aris quarry. And this morning I was just reading a paper explaining why nanometer-size particles of native sodium cause villiaumite to turn red whereas they cause halite (like the ones from Carlsbad, New Mexico) to turn blue! And then your photos show up... uncanny coincidence.

[david916]

Nepheline-syenite with villiaumite

[david916]

Burmese fluorite

[david916]

A specimen with a somewhat interesting backstory and good provenance having latterly belonged to the Mineralien-Museum Andreas Gabrys in Lam, Bavaria, Germany. When that museum closed it was amongst the many partial lots that were auctioned off from the very large mineral collection on display there. A brief history of the Mineralien-Museum Andreas Gabrys:

In 1969, Andreas Gabrys and his wife founded and opened Mineralien-Museum Andreas Gabrys in Lam, which became a collection of more than 10,000 specimens from local and international locations. At the time he was mine manager of the Fürstenzeche (otherwise known as the Oswald Mine) which is also located in Lam, Germany, in the Bayerischer Wald (Bavarian Forest). Andreas had always collected rocks and minerals, so when the Fürstenzeche finally shut down he had time to pursue his hobby completely. He exchanged, collected and bought minerals from traders, miners and exchanges. His wish was to make these treasures accessible to the public. When Andreas died in 1994 his wife continued to run the museum until 2004. However, due to her age and illness, it became necessary for her to move into a nursing home. As a result, the museum was temporarily closed in the hope that someone in the local community or the mineral fraternity would be interested in it. Unfortunately, despite much communication and marketing, there was no interest in taking over the going concern because of all the associated ongoing expenses and logistics that would inevitably be required to run and maintain it. Manfred Gabrys (son of Andreas) and his wife Renate, both now elderly themselves, became responsible for the museum and its large mineral collection. They wanted to keep the collection intact and together as a legacy to Andreas Gabrys, but when it became sadly evident that a buyer would not be found the museum property was subsequently put on the market and the huge collection had to be dismantled and was sold off in partial lots.

[david916]

Aesthetic Moroccan fluorite/baryte specimen

[david916]

Fluorite collected from the ore heap for the processing plant of British Fluorspar Limited (BFL) at Cavendish Mill in Stoney Middleton, Derbyshire, but it was most likely originally extracted from the nearby Milldam Mine in Great Hucklow, Derbyshire.

[david916]

A fluorite and quartz ‘fried egg’!

[david916]

Fluorite on creedite from the Navidad Mine in Durango, Mexico

[david916]

Micro specimen of fluorite on quartz from the old fluorite mine and dumps at Bois le Duc near Foisches in the Ardennes department of northern France.

[Firmo Espinar]

Hi David.

Welcome to FMF.

Please, you can read this thread to avoid overloading the users posts box:

How to add multiple photos to a Post

Thank you.

[david916]

Thanks and will do.

[david916]

Two micro specimens of bastnäsite on dolomite from Trimouns Talc Mine, Luzenac, Foix, Ariège, Occitanie, France. The name of Trimouns comes from the langue d’Oc words Trés Monts (three mountains), in reference to the three peaks that overlook the huge talc quarry/mine. Talc, a hydrated magnesium silicate, is the softest stone on our planet. It is hydrophobic, inert and composed of layers. Talc deposits form as a result of the transformation of high magnesium rocks by siliceous hydrothermal fluids. The seam at Trimouns was formed 300 million years ago in a fault between two masses of rock, one composed essentially of mica schist and the other of dolomite. In this fault, the rock was ground by the pressure of the two masses, allowing the infiltration of water containing large amounts of magnesium. The magnesium attached itself to the dolomite to form magnesium silicate: talc. In the same way, the mica schists were transformed into chlorite. Most talc originates from the alteration of dolomite, or ultramafic intrusive rocks. Following this process, talc is always found in combination with other minerals. Whilst carbonates and chlorite are the most common associated minerals, each talc deposit has a unique morphology and mineralogy. The Trimouns talc/chlorite deposit is a mineral locality of international significance, producing fine crystal specimens of rare earth element-bearing species of allanite/dissakisite, bastnäsite, synchisite, parisite, hingganite and iimoriite. Often micromount-size, these minerals occur in dolomite vugs in a contact zone of the deposit.

[david916]

Micro specimen of galena on siderite from Le Rivet Quarry near Peyrebrune in the Occitanie region of France. The geology of this quarry consists of sedimentary cover (Tertiary to Present), Ordovician black schists, interstratified metadolerites and metabasalts, Hercynian granitic and micro-granitic dykes, and the main Pb–Zn mineralised quartz veins of the Peyrebrune ore deposit. Both Le Rivet Quarry and the adjacent Peyrebrune Quarry were worked for fluorite, limonite and sphalerite. The Peyrebrune Mine is also located nearby and that was worked until 1972 producing calcite, galena, siderite and sphalerite. Some of the lead-zinc veins of the old mine surface in Le Rivet Quarry. A mines and mineral resources information circular by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, 1962 reported on Peyrebrune Mine, “Société des mines et Urines de Peyrebrune operates a mine in narrow fissure veins cutting igneous rocks. Average grade is about 5% lead and 1% zinc. Reserves are not known, but assumed to be quite small.” However, when it eventually closed this 520m deep mine with 30-35km of adits on 25 levels had worked two million tons of ore resulting in 65,000 tons of lead, 37,000 tons of zinc and 160 tons of silver!